Project Aborted
by JuhFreak
Summary: Inspired by a closed fanfiction challenge alas, too late by Groundwire2040. Set in the year 2066, we see what Zeta has become.


ZETA PROJECT: ABORTED  
  
By J'Freak  
  
2066  
  
Dr. Aroyu blinked his tired old eyes. The lighting was bad here, the air smoky. This underground bar for mercenaries and fugitives was the last place he wanted to be but, he knew, the only place he could find peace.  
  
Aroyu's life had once been much different. He had lived on, breathed in, and revolved around his first and only love--- science. He had been a "respectable citizen." In those last days, he was downright cowardly; but things change. An important moment had come to his life, where he chose between helping a fugitive and runaway, or saving his reputation. Aroyu chose the former. It was the right thing to do.  
  
The right thing landed him in prison for twenty-five years, the charge being treason against the United States. His criminal record stated that he had aided a synthoid in league with terrorists. Aroyu knew otherwise, but the courts didn't listen. His own lawyer didn't listen. So it goes.  
  
He'd been out for a year now, but no "respectable citizen" really wanted to be associated with some one who'd spent the best years of his life locked up for betraying America. If Aroyu wanted social interaction…  
  
He surveyed the foggy room.  
  
…This was where he had to get it.  
  
Needless to say, he kept to himself most of the time.  
  
There was a crash, and the voices of the other patrons stilled. Clad in black and silver armor, old Batman was making his appearance known. He'd knocked over a table pinned a splicer to the wall. Soon, the teenage snake boy was blurting whatever the vigilante wanted to know. Batman dropped him. Turning to face the bar's darkest shadows, he stepped through the hazy air, soon vanishing.  
  
The bar went back to normal.  
  
Vid-screens hung in each dank corner. Here a wrestling match, there a news show. On top of this was the heavy metal radio station that was not quite low enough to count as background noise. Voices murmured as countless shady characters shot each other suspicious glances. Two men in black coats sat nearest to the doctor, and they made no effort to hide the powerful guns strapped to their torsos.  
  
Clanking reached Aroyu's ears, and he turned in his booth to face the wall. A robot passed. Aroyu glanced at it with some bitterness. Some kind of outdated unit, he deduced, that had obviously been trying to update and repair itself for… who knew how long. An object of mismatched parts and weapons, it sat down at one of the empty tables, disregarding the fact that the beer bottles and ashtray had not yet been bussed.  
  
The petite young bartender approached the unit. "I'm supposed to believe you wanna order something?"  
  
"If you don't mind, I would like to rest here for the night. My---"  
  
The woman held up her hand. "I don't need to know about your bodily functions. Look, if you're not going to order anything, and you're not with anyone who's ordering, you can just take yourself elsewhere."  
  
The robot stood again, and the woman rushed off with some other task in mind. Aroyu studied the machine with critical eyes, trying to figure out what it had once been. As the unit looked around the diner, their gazes met.  
  
"Dr. Aroyu?" it asked very politely.  
  
Aroyu's eyes widened. No… it couldn't be.  
  
"Dr. Aroyu… I recognize your cornea scan. Do you remember me?"  
  
He only stared.  
  
"It's Zeta… Infiltration Unit Zeta."  
  
"Zeta," Aroyu finally muttered. Vaguely, he wondered if he was gawking the same way he had decades ago. A pause hung between them. "Zeta, you're still alive."  
  
"Yes. May I sit down?"  
  
"Uh… Yes. Go ahead, sit down."  
  
Zeta approached the booth and seated himself across from the doctor. They stared at each other, an old man and a terrifying machine.  
  
"I know you were arrested on account of me," Zeta said. When Aroyu made no move to respond, he added humbly, "Thank you."  
  
"Yeah, well. I did what I thought was right."  
  
The old line. The one they had traded so long ago…  
  
"I haven't heard much about you, at all," Aroyu continued. "Not since that horrible accident twenty years ago." Zeta's eyes tilted back to convey sadness. "What happened?"  
  
"Forgive me, Dr. Aroyu. But I am tired. I have been running without rest for six months now…"  
  
"Oh, yes. You were telling the bartender…"  
  
"I must standby soon."  
  
"Go right ahead."  
  
Zeta slumped forward in his seat, as his chest began to whirr softly. Comical. It was almost like snoring, yet it came from such a monstrous-looking synthoid.  
  
The bar tender marched past them balancing two trays. Depositing the contents at the table with the armed men, she quickly returned. "The robot found a friend, I see."  
  
"An old friend," Aroyu assured her. "I'd like a slice of pizza, and… heck, I'll try a beer."  
  
"What kind?"  
  
"I have no idea. Surprise me." He'd never had a beer before.  
  
"With the brand or the toppings?"  
  
"Both."  
  
The bartender hurried away again.  
  
Aroyu looked again at the synthoid set on standby. Zeta's pure titanium body had been almost completely redone. The most remaining was a patch of silver on the left side of his head. The rest was an ugly, rough black, sometimes teal blue. Most robots these days were one or the other, but never both. Aroyu also took note--- with some disappointment ---of the powerful gun protruding from Zeta's right arm. It had a cruel red scope lens.  
  
"Zeta, my friend," Aroyu murmured, "something tells me you've had it worse than I."  
  
Aroyu's pizza and beer arrived, and from then on he ate as Zeta snored. Still annoyed by the sounds of the bar, Aroyu was pleased to discover a vid-screen's remote control hiding behind the salt shaker. When he picked it up, however, it was broken.  
  
Once finished with his meal, Aroyu reached over and tapped Zeta's skull. Zeta awoke immediately.  
  
"Is something wrong?"  
  
Aroyu shook his head. "No. It's just that I've finished eating, and I don't think you'll get to stay here all night. If you'd like, you can finish recharging at my home."  
  
"But if I'm discovered there..."  
  
"No one's looking for you anymore, Zeta. The government thinks you were destroyed decades ago. Besides, it would be an honor to have you in my home."  
  
"I would like that," Zeta said. "I haven't been inside any accomodations since... Ro."  
  
Aroyu nodded.  
  
Zeta began climbing out of the booth, and Aroyu did likewise, paying for the meal through the card slot in the table. "You were asking for details on what happened," Zeta was saying.  
  
Aroyu stopped. "Oh, yes."  
  
"As you probably know, we were in a factory. Ro and I. I wasn't sure whether Dr. Selig was alive or not anymore, but the factory was producing new synthoids by his own design. It was the only lead we had."  
  
Aroyu nodded.  
  
"A bounty hunter appeared. Not Krik, but some other professional who has since proved very illusive and mysterious. We fought while Ro hid. I was not adequately armed for the bounty hunter's attacks, but I knew I could outsmart him. The main power generator was badly damaged in the process. I shut down the power. But on my way to find Ro, the bounty hunter turned it on again. There was a power surge."  
  
"Which resulted in an explosion," Aroyu finished.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And there were so many models like you in the factory, waiting to be upgraded, that the NSA simply had to conclude you were somewhere in there. From that time on, you could continue your quest without being pursued."  
  
"It isn't much of a quest," Zeta replied. "If Dr. Selig is alive, he is ninety-eight years old. I have nothing to go after anymore. Even if I had gained my freedom through that accident, it would not be worth the price."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Simple mathematics. Rosalie Rowan's life was worth more than anything I could ever gain. Her loss has not and never will be replaced."  
  
Something dawned on Aroyu then. Feeling overwhelming compassion, he murmured, "Zeta..."  
  
"Zeta?" a male voice spoke.  
  
The synthoid turned to face the speaker. It was one of the men in dark coats. Both were standing. Zeta sprang into action. "Get down!"  
  
The men gave fire. Zeta overturned a table and threw Aroyu behind it. Powerful lasers flashed against his body as he jumped onto the bar counter. His arms became guns themselves. Screams were heard only a moment before the air became one defeaning shriek of gunfire. Assassins and mercenaries jumped up to defend themselves. Fugitives hid or fled. One of the men after Zeta convulsed as he was hit, falling into the booth a messy corpse. His partner backed toward the elevator as he fired.  
  
Zeta crouched low and jumped clear across the room. He reached the elevator doors just before they closed and fired one deadly shot. Then the man was blocked from view.  
  
His opponents were gun, but now the fight had begun. Even the bartender had donned a small exosuit in hopes of stopping the action. Hurrying through the chaos, Zeta found Aroyu again. "Quickly!"  
  
They made it safely to another elevator. Its heavily armored doors soon blocked out the sounds of panic and malice. Zeta glimmered, and his fearsome body was soon cloaked by that of an innocent young man. "Elevator. Ground floor."  
  
Aroyu leaned against the elevator door as they slowly rose upward. He felt faint and sick. "Who were those men?" he gasped.  
  
"The last two members of a secret society. I shut it down, and for that they hated me."  
  
"So," Aroyu said, "the last few years haven't been totally fruitless."  
  
"It was seventeen years ago," Zeta replied, in the same tone he might have used to state it was yesterday.  
  
"Groud floor," the elevator hummed. It opened for them, and they were looking out at the bar's secret entrance, an empty hair salon. The two of them passed through and ran into the night.  
  
"Where do you live?" Zeta asked.  
  
"23rd Avenue," Aroyu replied, turning left.  
  
"Dr. Aroyu? Isn't the 23rd in the other direction?"  
  
"Yes, it is."  
  
Zeta fell silent and didn't ask any more questions. He simply trusted and followed.  
  
Aroyu grew more and more excited as they hurried on at a brisk walk. They were in a housing district now, a little run down but not very bad, where there were obviously many families with children. The stillness of the evening suggested that most families were asleep, although some homes still glowed from within. They both stopped by an open gate, staring at the walk leading up to a house.  
  
"This is it?" Zeta asked.  
  
"Have you ever heard of the Burfords?"  
  
"No. Should I have?"  
  
Aroyu did not respond, only motioned for Zeta to follow. They stepped onto the porch, and Aroyu gave a few quick raps.  
  
The door peaked open. The two of them looked down. A pair of small children had answered the door, one blonde and one brunette. "Hi."  
  
"Are you parents home?" Aroyu asked.  
  
Leaving the door open, the two faces turned away. "Mom, Dad! Dr. Aroyu is here!"  
  
Aroyu let himself in, and so Zeta felt justified in following. As a dark-haired man appeared, he greeted them and asked, "Who is this?"  
  
"A very old friend. Zee Smith."  
  
"Zee Smith!" Mr. Burford staggered. "I--- I've heard of you."  
  
"Have you?" Zeta's hologram looked embarrassed and uncomfortable.  
  
"Honey?" the mother called from a nearby room. "What did you just say?"  
  
She appeared, a woman in her forties confined to a wheelchair. Half of her face still showed signs of scar. When she had rolled into the room, she stopped and stared at the visitors. Fixed on Zeta, her blue eyes filled with tears. "Zee?"  
  
"Ro!" Zeta said, stepping closer. He peered down to scan her cornea. "I thought you were dead!"  
  
"I thought you were dead!"  
  
"The government was trying to protect her from public scrutiny," Aroyu said from behind him. "They changed her last name and kept her survival a secret."  
  
"Zee, you get down here right this minute so I can hug you!" Ro demanded.  
  
Zeta obeyed.  
  
The small children ventured near, confused by their mother's tears. "Mom? Mom, who is he?"  
  
She pulled back and wiped her cheek, smiling at all who stood near. "Kids? This is your Uncle Zee."  
  
______  
  
This story is the property of http://jfreak.freeservers.com. All characters copyright WB and DC Comics. 


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